Action / Biography / Crime / Drama / Romance

Synopsis

Based on actual events. Brandon Teena is the popular new guy in a tiny Nebraska town. He hangs out with the guys, drinking, cussing, and bumper surfing, and he charms the young women, who've never met a more sensitive and considerate young man. Life is good for Brandon, now that he's one of the guys and dating hometown beauty Lana; however, he's forgotten to mention one important detail. It's not that he's wanted in another town for GTA and other assorted crimes, but that Brandon Teena was actually born a woman named Teena Brandon. When his best friends make this discovery, Brandon's life is ripped apart.

Based on actual events. Brandon Teena is the popular new guy in a tiny Nebraska town. He hangs out with the guys, drinking, cussing, and bumper surfing, and he charms the young women, who've never met a more sensitive and considerate young man. Life is good for Brandon, now that he's one of the guys and dating hometown beauty Lana; however, he's forgotten to mention one important detail. It's not that he's wanted in another town for GTA and other assorted crimes, but that Brandon Teena was actually born a woman named Teena Brandon. When his best friends make this discovery, Brandon's life is ripped apart.

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Movie Reviews

Sometimes they do

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut
to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it
at Amazon.)

This movie really made me think about sexual differences and what it
means to have a sex change or to want one, or to be trapped in a gender
you don't want. It was very effective to have us see Hilary Swank (who
plays Brandon Teena/Teena Brandon) with short hair and male facial
expressions and gestures without giving us a glimpse of her as Teena.
(Actually we did get a brief glimpse in a photo.) Swank looks like a
boy, acts like a boy, in fact works hard to be a boy; indeed that is
(sadly) part of what this movie is about, what it means to be a boy in
middle America as opposed to being a girl. And then when we have the
scene with the tampons and the breast wrapping and we see her legs, the
effect is startling, an effect possibly lost on those who knew that the
person playing Brandon was a woman. It was when I saw her legs and
could tell at a glance that she was a woman with a woman's legs that I
realized just how subtle, but unmistakable are the anatomical sexual
differences, and how convincing Swank's portrayal was.

I was reminded as I watched this of being a young person, of being a
teenager and going through all the rituals and rites, unspoken,
unplanned, without social sanction, that we all go through to prove our
identity, because that is what Brandon was so eager to do, to prove his
identity as a boy. I thought, ah such an advantage he has with the
girls because he knows what they like and what they want. He can be
smooth, and how pretty he looks. It was strange. I actually knew some
guys in my youth who had such talent, and the girls did love them.

The direction by Kimberly Peirce is nicely paced and the forebodings of
horror to come are sprinkled lightly throughout so that we don't really
think about the resolution perhaps until the campfire scene in which
John Lotter shows his self-inflicted scars and tosses the knife to
Brandon. Then we know for sure, something bad is going to happen.

Hilary Swank is very convincing. Her performance is stunning, and she
deserved the Academy Award she won for Best Actress. She is the type of
tomboy/girl so beloved of the French cinema, tomboyish, but obvious a
girl like, for example, Zouzou as seen in Chloe in the Afternoon (1972)
or Élodie Bouchez in the The Dreamlife of Angels (1998), or many
others. Indeed, one is even reminded of Juliette Binoche, who of course
can play anything, or going way back, Leslie Caron in Gigi (1958).
Chloe Signvey, who plays Lana Tisdel, the girl Brandon loves, whom I
first saw in Palmetto (1998), where she stole a scene or two from Woody
Allen and Elisabeth Shue, really comes off ironically as butch to
Swank, yet manages a sexy, blue collar girl next door femininity. She
also does a great job. Peter Sarsgaard is perfect as John Lotter,
trailer trash car thief and homophobic redneck degenerate.

Very disturbing is the ending. If you know the story, you know the
ending. Just how true this was to the real life story it is based on is
really irrelevant. I knew nothing about the story, but I know that film
makers always take license to tell it the way they think it will play
best, and so it's best to just experience the film as the film,
independent of the real story, which, like all real stories, can never
be totally told.

Obviously this is not for the kiddies and comes as close to an "X"
rating as any "R" movie you'll ever see. It will make most viewers
uncomfortable, but it is the kind of story that needs to be told.

Reviewed by flickjunkie-39 / 10

powerful, disturbing human drama

Boys Don't Cry was a major success with the critics and the Academy
Award's,
so I looked forward to seeing it. Easily one of the best films of the past
year, Boys Don't Cry is a moving experience that deserved all the credit it
got, and then some.

The film takes for its source material the true story of Brandon Teena
(Hilary Swank), a girl who, well, just wants to be a boy. A sex-changing
(getting her hair cut and sticking a dildo down her pants) credit sequence
sees our hero(ine) at first on the pull, duping a local girl into a bit of
nookie, and then on the run, when the truth about her sexuality rears its
bizarre head.
A fugitive of the law, as well as a few irate townsfolk, a twist of fate
leads to her befriending a bunch of trailer-trash misfits and, temporarily,
enjoying a new-found freedom under her manly guise. Of course, it's all
going to go horribly wrong - particularly when she falls in love with the
local girlie sweetheart (Chloe Sevigny).

Chloe Sevigny, who plays the girl Brandon falls in love with, deserved to
win an Academy Award. Her performance still lives in my memory, and it has
been some time since I first saw Boys Don't Cry. Hilary Swank, who did
receive an Oscar, pulls off an absolute barnstormer of a performance as
Brandon Teena, it is easily one of the boldest and most memorable
performances I saw in the 20th century. Kimberley Pierce is also another
stand-out, she is in the director's chair, and she hardly got any praise
for
her amazing effort that she put into this film. I applaud everyone involved
in Boys Don't Cry, even the one's who got little credit, particularly
Brendan Sexton III (who plays a trouble-making misfit) and Andy Bienen
(co-writer).

Groundbreaking performances and a brilliant debut directing effort make
this
film unmissable.

Remarkable depiction of real life drama

After finally getting the chance to see this film, I have to say it was
worth the wait. Hillary Swank's performance was outstanding, she certainly
deserves the golden globe she's already won and the oscar, she's sure to be
nominated for. Brandon Teena was real, no questions. The director, Kimberly
Pierce deserves much credit for telling the story subtlety, no black and
white, he's wrong, she's right. I came away from this movie realizing the
courage you have to possess to be different, the dangers from it are real
and we must admire those brave enough among us to be.